Donate to The Society of Occupational Medicine
SOM welcomes donations that help our charitable purpose. 2025 marks 90 years since the Association of Industrial Medical Officers, renamed the SOM in 1965, was established. Since then, SOM has grown and evolved to address changing occupational health needs. For our 90th anniversary, we are aiming to raise funds to support:
- Training of new leaders in occupational health as part of a new Leadership Academy, to help occupational health thrive for the years to come.
- Production of a new book - Art, Work and Health - to be launched at the 2025 annual scientific conference in Brighton.
- A new occupational health essay prize for students - to encourage new clinicians to join the occupational health sector.
- Research via the Professor Tar-Ching Aw research memorial fund - for occupational health research in the UK, and globally.
All funds will go to a restricted fund for these purposes. Following the Golden Jubilee Appeal in 1975 (which raised over £80,000 for an annual travel fellowship), we have an ambitious but appropriate target to raise £90,000 over the next year.
To donate, email finance@som.org.uk with details of the donation. Your bank will provide you with a receipt as proof of payment. Please send to finance@som.org.uk the date that you transferred your donation. This will help us keep track of your transfer and we can then let you know and thank you once we have received it. Do state if you are a UK taxpayer, as we can then claim gift aid.
Leaving a gift to The SOM in your Will
A gift in your will enhances SOM’s capacity to make a real difference to workplace and occupational health. It is an ideal way of ensuring SOM’s work continues in the long term. Any gift left to a charitable organisation is free of Inheritance Tax. Because the SOM’s strategic priorities change over time, SOM prefers legacies to be left for the general purposes of The SOM; allowing us to adapt to the changing needs of the profession. Alternatively, bequests can occur to the wider areas of research, education, and international activities or for enhancement of existing endowments such as the Golden Jubilee fund. If you do wish to leave a gift for a particular area of our work, please consider expressing this as a preference, rather than a condition. The SOM will do everything it can to honour that preference. Please contact us if you have a specific purpose in mind for your gift. This will ensure that the use of your bequest meets your wishes whilst supporting the aims of The SOM.
Wills: How to do it
We recommend that you make your will in consultation with a solicitor or other professional advisor who is expressly qualified to make wills. A gift may take the form of a:
- pecuniary legacy – a gift of a specified sum of money
- residual legacy – a gift of all or part of the remainder of your estate after legacies and charges have been met
- reversionary legacy – a gift of an asset, such as a house or a fund that can be enjoyed by a chosen beneficiary during his or her lifetime before reverting to the SOM.
If you already have a will, adding a codicil allows you to make changes without having to rewrite the entire document.
Wills: Suggested wording
The following are examples of what you need to write in your will (we recommend that you draft your will in consultation with a qualified solicitor):
- for pecuniary or specific legacies: ‘I give to The Society of Occupational Medicine (Registered Charity Number 1184142 England and Wales, and SC049793, Scotland) a pecuniary / specific legacy free of all taxes of £XX for its charitable purposes, and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other authorised officer will be a sufficient discharge to my executor/s.’
- for residuary legacies: ‘I give to The Society of Occupational Medicine (Registered Charity Number 1184142 England and Wales, and SC049793, Scotland) the whole (or a X% share) of my residuary estate for its charitable purposes, and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other authorised officer will be sufficient discharge to my executor/s.’
- reversionary legacies should be drafted in consultation with a solicitor.
Updating your will
If you have already made a will and the only change you want to make is to include a bequest to The SOM, you can do so by completing a codicil. The codicil can be completed at any time and becomes a legal document when signed in the presence of two adult witnesses (not relatives). We recommend you speak to your solicitor or other qualified professional about making such changes.
Let us know
Please tell us if you have decided to leave a bequest so that we can thank you and keep you up to date about our work. Any information you provide will be treated in strict confidence and will be not legally binding. However, we respect your privacy and know that it’s a deeply personal decision; so, there is no pressure to notify us and you can remain anonymous if you prefer to do so.